Human Waste

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT HUMAN WASTE - PAGE 5

Thank you for really calling the Illinois nursing homes like they are (News, Sept. 27-29)! I am an 88-year-old lady, and I thank God I still live independently. It is obvious some Illinois nursing home owners and administrators only look at the older adult and dependent people as money-makers. Many of us have had relatives and friends in nursing homes. We know how bad it is. Never enough trained staff (a corporate decision) so the residents are neglected. The staff is underpaid, yet the place is well-decorated.

DAVE MATTHEWS, WHOSE TOUR BUS ALLEGEDLY DUMPED HUMAN WASTE ON CHICAGO RIVER BOATERS, SPEAKING TO GREENLIGHT NEWSLETTER IN 2003. "I walk when I can, drive a fuel-efficient car, use economical appliances, recycle, try and eat organic food grown without pesticides and fertilizers that damage the soil. To compensate for the pollution that I cause through touring, I support environmental education, I support tree planting efforts and alternative energy sources (wind, water and sun).

Three former prison guards were convicted Tuesday of beating inmates at a federal prison and in two cases of conspiring in an elaborate cover-up. Four others were acquitted of all charges. The seven guards were charged with organizing attacks on inmates at the maximum-security prison in Florence, about 95 miles south of Denver, from 1995 to 1997. Some were accused of kicking shackled prisoners, smashing their heads into walls and mixing human waste into their food. Three other guards previously pleaded guilty in the case.

A woman who slept in her home while her 3-year-old boy wandered onto a busy highway was sentenced Tuesday to a year in prison for child neglect. Marion Superior Court Judge Lisa Borges scolded Nancy Dyer before sentencing her, saying it was "a miracle" her son wasn't killed. Damon Dyer was not hurt as drivers on Interstate 465 swerved to avoid him Dec. 30. The temperature was in the mid-50s. Police officers said that when they traced Damon to his home, they found his 2-year-old sister eating spaghetti off the floor, with human waste and trash strewn about.

The federal government accused Boston housing officials Wednesday of ignoring complaints that whites opposed to integration harassed minority tenants with such tactics as beating children and placing human waste outside apartment doors. The charges against Boston Housing Authority constitute the first time the Department of Housing and Urban Development has accused a city's housing authority of a pattern of "systematic discrimination." "Housing discrimination is an ugly part of our nation's past that has no place in America today," Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo said in Washington as he announced the charges, stemming from an investigation of alleged racial and ethnic harassment in the Bunker Hill and Old Colony public housing developments from 1992 to 1996.

It's hard to imagine a more egregious human waste of time, money and effort than the dissemination of the dreaded annual reports. It all starts with the significant cost of mailing. Next, the carrier is loaded down with huge numbers of these items. The ultimate recipient, the stockholder, has the problem of opening and reading pages of corporate statistics and management boasts or alibis. Or said shareholder can just dispose of the booklets and transfer his problem to the unfortunate trash collector.

The staggering amount of animal waste produced on farms often pollutes water and the risk is growing as more large-scale livestock operations take hold, a U.S. Senate study found. The study says the amount of animal manure produced in the United States is 130 times greater than the amount of human waste and there are no national standards for dealing with the animal waste. A 50,000-acre hog farm being built in Utah could potentially put out more waste than Los Angeles, according to the study that Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)

The Dave Matthews Band has agreed to pay $200,000 and keep a log of when and where its tour buses empty their septic tanks to settle a lawsuit filed after one of its buses dumped 800 pounds of human waste onto a sightseeing boat, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan announced Friday. The bus was crossing a bridge over the Chicago River when the waste poured through a bridge's metal grates and onto Chicago's Little Lady tour boat. The settlement follows last month's guilty plea by bus driver Stefan Wohl to charges of reckless conduct and discharging contaminates to cause water pollution.

"I've found animal waste on the steps. That's a rare occurrence. It's much more common to find human waste." -Frank Scaturro, who was fired as a National Park Service volunteer after writing a report on the lamentable state of Grant's Tomb, which has become a magnet for junkies and vandals. "The reasoning goes as follows: I want, and if I want something I need it; if I need it, I have a right to it; if I have a right to it, someone else has an obligation to provide it." -Dr. John Cova, a consultant to the Health Insurance Industry Association, on the success of some patients who threaten lawsuits to force insurers to pay for experimental treatments that are not covered and have no proven value.

Inventors trying to improve disposable diapers often use real baby poop in their experiments. How's that for a gooey, stinky job? But before you crinkle your nose in disgust, read on. Researchers have come up with a solution: fake poop. Scientists Richard Yeo and Debra Welchel of Roswell, Ga., concocted a dry mix made of starches, natural gums, gelatins and fibers. When water is added, it's the same consistency as baby poop - without the smell. Not only is the mix less gross than the real stuff, it's safer.